Every year children and pets drown in unmonitored swimming pools. It would be a benefit, therefore, to have a pool monitoring and alarm system that monitored movement through a detecting zone near or at the pool water surface to detect when items enter the pool. In addition, children can become stuck against the drain intake of a pool and be unable to break free because the suction generated by the pool pump is too great. It would be a further benefit, therefore, to have a pool alarm and monitoring system that included a sensor for detecting when the pool drain becomes blocked and automatically turns the pool pump off to release the trapped child while simultaneously activating an audible alarm to attract rescue efforts.